Singapore-based Harvey Goldstein serves as the chairman of Harvest International, Inc., in Indonesia, where he also serves as the managing director of Business-Link Consultancy PTE LTD. Previously, Harvey Goldstein served as a founding shareholder and director for Resources Management International, Inc., a company based in Southeast Asia that provides training and management in developing countries in the region, including Indonesia.

Located equatorially between the Indian and Pacific Oceans, Indonesia is an archipelago of 17,508 islands and the fourth most populated country in the world. The largest islands in the archipelago are Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, Kalimantan, and the Indonesian section of New Guinea known as Papua. The island of Java has the nation’s most clustered population, forcing the Indonesian government to instill a transmigration policy to correct the uneven distribution. As part of a developing region, Indonesia has progressed substantially in recent years, with its economy and morale having been lifted from previous struggles. Gas and oil exports aid the economy, but this boost is also partially due to tourism, as Indonesia is the second most biodiverse nation in the world and contains thousands of varieties of flora and fauna.

Business leader, Harvey Goldstein, has extensive experience working in Indonesia. Today, Harvey Goldstein draws on his international business experience in Indonesia to provide consulting expertise on matters such as foreign direct investment (FDI).

Foreign direct investment entails investment in a company in a given country by a company or individual from another country. Often, FDI is the top source of external funding for developing economies. Furthermore, FDI recipients may attain benefits such as job creation and the influx of technical knowledge.

Southeast Asia has benefited from increased foreign investment in recent years. In fact, during 2013, FDI in five Southeast Asian nations outpaced FDI in China for the first time. The five nations (Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand), which are collectively known as the ASEAN-5, received more than $125 billion in foreign investment in 2013. During that period, FDI in China dropped by 2.9 percent to less than $120 billion. At the same time, China has grown to be the third largest foreign investor in the world, with much of its investment directed to the nearby Southeast Asian economies.

Author

Harvey Goldstein is an American executive who has almost five decades of experience doing business and creating jobs in Southeast Asia.